Dismember demos

Listening to the complete Dismember demos disk, I've picked up on a few things I didn't notice before.

First, successful country scenes. This is far better than average, but clearly it helped for them to know some experts who could help them mold this, including production.

Next, I hear a lot of early Sepultura (Morbid Visions/Bestial Devastation) in the vocal delivery and the way a lot of these riffs come together. Interesting influence, kind of fits the whole DLA 'phrasal' death metal concept.

Their vocals, and some of Darkthrone's, are really rough voices with a lot of feathery edges that make it hard to hear a clear sound. They end up not being as forceful as vocals with the bass united to the rest of the sound, like Glen Benton or the dude from Asphyx.

I'd have to say that the production most of those bands used (Sunlight Studios) really weakened the music. You hit the nail on the head with your description of the vocals, and the guitar is just thin. It really detracts from the music, its less heavy than it should be and makes it sound dull.

The band whose production keeps entrancing me is Asphyx on the self-titled. It's aggressive distortion, but it doesn't lose tone or subtone either. Wish I knew how they did it.

Quote

"Yes we improved quite a bit, but that's natural of course. I don' think, by the way, that "The Rack" has a killer production. The guitar and vocals are good, but the drumsound and bass are a bit buried in the mix 'coz it was only on 8 tracks. I hope that Century Media will remix the thing sometime... But then again it was only recorded in 3 days, it's a not finished and still under construction 8 track studio demo and costed only 1500$ US! So with that in mind "The Rack" sounds killer!

How did you get in touch with Harry Wijering, who became the man responsible for the production of each ASPHYX album from "The Rack" until "On The Wings Of Inferno"? Is it him who influenced the typical ASPHYX sound, or was it more due to the rack effects used by Eric Daniels (the guitarist)?"I know Harry right from the start of the Harrow studio, in 1988 that was. We were, apart from his own band, the first band who came to rehearse over there. When Tonny and me came in, Harry was still painting the place. So Harry knew our sound right from the beginning, and knew what ASPHYX stood for. The typical raw ASPHYX sound is Eric's very own guitar sound, thanks to some very special effects imported from Denmark. Eric searched for years to get a sound like that, and he finally found it. Harry had to make sure it all recorded well. I think, also the combination of Eric and Harry working together on that typical crushing guitar sound lead to the ultimate result."

Asphyx's guitar tone and vocals really are unmatched as far as aesthetic value goes in death metal.

He is right, though, when he says that the drums and bass are weak.

Virtually all death metal from the classic era had trouble figuring those two instruments out, actually.

That problem is mostly due to a lack of funding, I think, as drums require many expensive microphones and many channels of mixing, especially when compared to the (relative) simplicity of recording sound from a guitar amplifier or vocalist.

Virtually all death metal from the classic era had trouble figuring those two instruments out, actually.

That problem is mostly due to a lack of funding, I think, as drums require many expensive microphones and many channels of mixing, especially when compared to the (relative) simplicity of recording sound from a guitar amplifier or vocalist.

Very true, and I think most producers were more familiar with rock, where guitars are tuned higher and drums are slower, so some of their shortcuts don't work so good with death metal.